This is an amateur, non-commercial story, which is not produced, approved of, or in any way sponsored by the holders of the trademarks/copyrights from which this work is derived, nor is it intended to infringe on the rights of these holders. And so it goes.

ALL HALLOWS EVE

by Jeff Morris

Once
upon a time there was a sixteen-year-old girl named Mary Ann Linzini.She was a sweet, gentle soul who was neither
terribly bright nor terribly beautiful--which pretty much sums up the state of
most people in the world.Mary was also
terribly shy and as a result terribly lonely--another accurate summation of the
world's state of affairs, when you get down to it.So she fought the loneliness by reading books about princesses in
far-off lands who braved awful perils until they found their true love
(inevitably a handsome prince) and lived happily ever after.She also watched movies with the same
theme--Disney's THE LITTLE MERMAID was a particular favorite.Eventually, she could sing every song from
memory and recite entire scenes from the movie.

And
one day Mary Ann found herself a handsome prince.Well, not as handsome as Prince Eric, of course, but he smiled at
her, paid attention to her, and treated her kindly.And in return Mary Ann gave him all her attention, all her
devotion, and when she was certain that he was her true love, she gave himself
something else in the back of his father's station wagon one night.

Within
five weeks of that magical night, Mary Ann had discovered that her prince was
actually a skunk who had been after only one thing, and having gotten it,
wanted nothing more to do with her.She
also discovered that she was pregnant.

Now
Mary Ann was from a good Catholic home, and the thought of telling her parents
this awful news terrified her beyond measure.They would yell and scream at her, throw away all her wonderful books
and movies ( the only comfort she had anymore), and perhaps even throw her out
into the streets and let her starve.And the priest at her local parish was a bitter old man who constantly
railed at the kids her age about their “wicked, lustful habits”, so he'd
certainly show her no mercy.Everywhere
she turned, Mary Ann found herself trapped with no way out, and certainly no
“happily ever after” in her future.

So
one day Mary Ann went to the bank, withdrew all her money from her savings
account, and went to a place that specialized in correcting mistakes.Next she went a nearby church and prayed for
an hour, sobbing into her rosary.Finally she took the subway from Brooklyn to Staten Island, boarded the
ferry, and when she figured the boat was far enough out and the crew couldn't
see her, she leaped over the side and tumbled into the water.

She
struggled briefly, then let herself sink slowly into the grimy depths of the
Hudson River.As water filled her
lungs, her mind drifted through fading memories, finally focusing on the young
man who'd caused her entire world to shatter like stained glass.A surge of anger rippled through her, and
just as darkness overwhelmed her senses, a final, furious thought came to her:

“Don't get mad...get even...”

Shortly
thereafter, a rash of unexplained drownings began occurring around Staten
Island.The victims were all handsome
young men between the ages of 16 and 25, and none of the bodies that had been
recovered showed any evidence of a struggle.Police interviewed the friends and relatives of the victims and found
nothing that pointed towards suicide; after the sixth victim was found, they
beefed up security on the ferry, which had been the jumping point for every
drowning.

When
two cops drowned within a week of each other, matters grew even tenser.

Finally,
a woman from Cleveland who'd been touring the city accidentally witnessed a
drowning and gave the police an odd account:she claimed to have seen a beautiful mermaid out in the river, singing
and calling to the latest victim, who'd eagerly climbed over the rail and
jumped into the water.At that point,
the mermaid had swum over to the young man, embraced him tightly, and descended
into the watery depths.

In
any other city, this account would have been chalked up as a hallucination or
fabrication.But this was New York, and
New Yorkers did things differently than other cities.

In
New York, when there was something strange in their neighborhood, they knew
exactly who to call.

“THERE
SHE IS!”Ray Stantz screamed, pointing
out into the river where the mermaid was frolicking.He struggled out of his overcoat--no easy feat, considering he
was wearing his proton pack underneath it--and switched the bulky device
on.Nearby, Egon Spengler and Peter
Venkman were similarly engaged.

“Remember,”
Egon warned as he slipped a pair of ecto-goggles on.“Do not under any circumstances look into her eyes unless it's
unavoidable, and certainly don't do it with your goggles off.There's no guarantee that these will prevent
us from falling under her spell.”

“She
got one heckuva set of gills,” Peter grinned.“YO, BABE!”he yelled at the
apparition, who turned towards the sound of his voice.She was definitely beautiful:long red hair that framed perfect facial
features, a pair of blue eyes that could pierce and enchant the coldest heart,
and a body that inspired fierce desire.Take away the tail, and she could have made the Sports Illustrated
swimsuit issue--come to think of it, Peter thought to himself, the tail might
work after all.Peter flinched as she
smiled invitingly at him, but the expected urge to join her never came.“Goggles work, guys!” he called to his
comrades.“HEY, ARIEL--IT'S SUSHI
TIME!” he added as he fired a stream at her.

The
mermaid dove underwater just as the stream hit the spot where she'd been
swimming.“Oboy,” Peter sighed.“Bad enough when they can fly over our
heads--this one can go under us as well.”

“We
anticipated this,” Egon reminded him.The blond scientist put on a headset and spoke into the microphone.“Winston, can you hear me?”

“Sure
can, m'man,” came the static-filled reply.

“It
appears that we'll need you to prod her out after all.”

“I'm
on my way.”In seconds ECTO-2 zoomed
over the ferry, with Winston Zeddemore behind the controls.The attached cannon nozzle had had several
modifications made to it earlier in the day, the result of Janine and Egon
performing a morning reconnaissance at the area of the drownings.Spengler had gotten several strong readings
on his PKE meter, and with Ray's assistance had adapted the cannon to fire an
energy stream set to a frequency incompatible with the underwater entity.A steady barrage would drive the creature
out of hiding.

Peter,
with his typical flair, had promptly dubbed the device a “mermaid prod”.

With
the squeeze of a trigger, ECTO-2 fired an orange-yellow burst of energy into
the water, causing it to boil and roll with turbulence.“Got anything yet?” Winston asked.

“Not
yet.”Egon was consulting his PKE meter
as he spoke.“She's down there, she's
just not giving in.Keep a steady
stream of fire going and let's see what she does.”

“INCOMING!”
yelled Ray; with an angry scream, the mermaid shot out of the water and leaped
gracefully over the ferry.The wake
from her emergence slammed into the Ghostbusters, drenching them and knocking
them off-balance; Egon grabbed a railing and squinted all around for another
glimpse of the creature.But from all
appearances, she had returned to the water.

“We've
got her irritated,” he informed Winston.“Keep firing.”

“Esther
Williams would be green with envy if she saw that leap,” Peter remarked as he
got to his feet.“So would Prince
Namor.Geez...if it isn't slime, it's
water, and Hudson River water at that...Yuk!”

Egon
grabbed his PKE meter and studied it intently as Winston fired another barrage
of energy.“We're getting a big spike,”
he warned the others.“Get ready...any
second now...”

'WINSTON!”
Ray screamed suddenly.“LOOK OUT!”

“What?”Before anyone could react, the mermaid
exploded from the waters and shot up into the sky.She lunged for ECTO-2 and, grabbing onto Winston's arm with one
hand, tore his helmet off with the other and stared into his eyes.He felt the world spinning away from him,
replaced with an overwhelming desire to be hers, to be part of her world forever.

Smiling
maliciously, the mermaid caressed his cheek and kissed him softly on the
lips.His hands left the controls of
ECTO-2 and slid around her waist.The
nose of the vehicle dropped towards the water; the mermaid pulled away from the
entranced Ghostbuster and laughed as she ripped the safety harness away from
his body and pulled him out of the pilot's seat.Winston tumbled free of the falling aircraft, still utterly
entranced as he fell.She laughed again
as both man and machine plunged into the river--then her laugh became a scream as
two beams of energy slammed into her and held her captive.

'WINSTONNNNN!”Peter quickly shucked off his proton pack
and dove into the water, furiously swimming over to where ECTO-2 had hit.Ray and Egon allowed themselves no time to watch
or worry, working instead to move the writhing, infuriated entity into
position.She struggled again and again
to free herself from the particle beams, but found them impossible to escape.

'TRAP
OPEN!”Egon called, stomping his foot
down on an activator pedal.Nearby, the
small box resting on the deck beeped and raised its flaps, releasing a halo of
energy that bathed the mermaid's body and pulled it down towards the waiting
prison.Egon and Ray switched off their
particle beams and watched as the mermaid screamed one final time before
vanishing into the trap, which closed itself and beeped again.

Then
they raced to the edge of the boat.“MAN OVERBOARD!” Ray called up to the bridge; within seconds, the ferry
had stopped and the crew was racing over to where the Ghostbusters were
waiting.Hearts pounding from equal
parts terror and exertion, Ray and Egon peered over the edge of the boat into
the murky waters of the bay.

It
was bad enough getting drenched the first time--diving into the chilly October
depths of the Hudson just about topped a lousy day for Peter.He'd had the foresight to keep his
ecto-goggles over his eyes for protection, but as he forced his body down
deeper into the river, he had to wonder just how good the odds were that he'd
find Winston, much less save him.

His
lungs were beginning to burn, pleading with his brain to turn around and get
some oxygen.Peter stubbornly overrode
his good sense and continued searching.But a handful of seconds later, he found that his body had somehow
obtained the veto option, and reluctantly headed back to the surface.Okay, then--he'd grab enough air to satisfy
his lungs, then ignore the cold that was creeping along his legs and arms and
make a second attempt.No problem.The dangers of hypothermia were probably
exaggerated, anyway.

Somewhere
along the way, he miraculously smacked against a familiar-looking chest.Peter would have sighed in relief, but there
was no way he was going to let any of this water get into his mouth.Wrapping an arm around Winston's limp body,
Peter kicked his way towards the surface and salvation.

Ray
and Egon watched as one of the ferry workers performed mouth-to-mouth on their
comrade; Peter gratefully accepted a heavy blanket and a cup of hot chocolate
from another crewman before joining them.He had just reached Ray's side when Winston began to stir, coughing
water out of his mouth and nose.“Take
it easy, Winston,” Ray said.“It's
okay--we got her.Just relax.”

Egon
sighed and pushed his glasses back into place.“That was far closer than I care to think about.”

“No
kidding,” Ray said, handing Winston a blanket as he pushed himself into a
sitting position.“Seems like we've
gotten more than our share of close calls the past few weeks, you know?”

“Yeah,
and we all know why, Ray, so let's drop the subject, okay?” Peter sat down and
handed his cup to Winston.“Sip slow,
Zee.”

“Don't
have to tell me twice.”He stared out
at the bay and sighed.“We lost ECTO-2,
didn't we?Sorry, guys.I really blew it.”

“Hey,
nothing we can't replace, given time and money,” Ray said cheerfully.

Peter
looked up and glared at his partner.“If you ever build another one of those flying deathtraps,” he said
quietly, “I will cheerfully throw you off the roof of the firehouse without benefit
of a bungee cord.”

“Aw,
c'mon, Pete, it wasn't that bad...”

“Humph.”

Eventually
the ferry returned to the dock. Sighing wearily, the Ghostbusters trudged
towards the parking lot where ECTO-1 was waiting.Their packs felt impossibly heavy on their backs; their arms and
legs seemed to have lead weights attached.To add to the dreary atmosphere, there was an eerie keening drifting
across the late afternoon breeze.

“Never
heard a bird sing like that before,” Winston remarked.

“I
have.It was being tortured by a wild
gang of five year olds,” Peter said.They stumbled on, finding to their surprise the noise grew louder the
closer they got to the main entrance.And then, Egon suddenly froze in his tracks, causing the others to
collide with him.

“Egon...”
Peter began.

“Look.”And when the others followed his
outstretched finger, they all fell silent.Sitting at the edge of the nearest dock was an ugly old woman in
tattered black rags, running bloody clothing through the water and pulling it
out with her gnarled, wrinkled fingers.And yet the red stains never seemed to leave the powder-blue uniform
with pink trim...or the brown and green jumpsuit...or the grey and blue
outfit...or the tan one, either.

And
as she worked, the crone continued to sing her mournful, haunting dirge, which
chilled the Ghostbusters to their very souls and caused them to take an
involuntary step backwards.

“A bean
nighe,” Ray breathed.

“Say
what?” Winston whispered.

“You
know them better as 'banshees',” Egon clarified.“They're mythical creatures, originally found in Scottish and
Irish legends.”

“She
looks mighty real to me, man.What's
she doing?”

“Banshees
wash the clothes of mortals who are about to die,” Ray said softly.

“Why
doesn't that surprise me any?” Peter groaned.“Look, it's a scare tactic, nothing more, nothing less.Let's ignore it and move on.”The others heeded Venkman's orders, but none
of them could resist one last wary peek over their shoulders at the crone, who
continued to wash and wail at the dock's edge.

The
ride back to the firehouse was made in relative silence; Winston, exhausted by
his ordeal, spent most of the time asleep in the back seat.Peter sat opposite him, staring out the
window.In front, Egon studied his PKE
meter and Ray concentrated on his driving.Traffic was heavy, but this being New York, that was nothing new.“I got a letter from 'Mother' today,” Ray
said to his fellow scientist.

“Oh?”
Egon replied.

“Yeah.He said cattle mutilations are up again.”

“Really.”This seemed to interest Egon, for some
reason.

“Yup.Sent me the stats.”

“Fascinating.”Egon returned his attention to the meter.

“Where's
everybody going?” Peter asked.

“There's
a medieval festival being held in Central Park today,” Ray told him.“It's being sponsored by the city.Supposed to be pretty neat--Sheila was
planning on going this afternoon.”Peter grunted softly and returned his attention to the window.But all of them--save perhaps Winston--were
thinking about the same thing:when and
where was Samhain going to strike?

Of
all the foes the Ghostbusters had battled, Samhain had been one of the most
powerful and dangerous.For he was far
more than a mere ghost--he was the living personification of Halloween, the
avatar of a long-ago time when men feared and respected the darker powers that
dwelt among them.Twice now they had
done battle with him, and both times they'd only barely managed to defeat and
contain him.

About
six months ago, there had been a major containment breach at the firehouse, the
circumstances of which no one could quite recall.But a large number of entities had gotten free, and by comparing
the PKE levels from before and after the breach, it was obvious that among the
escapees were at least two major-league menaces.And one of them had to be Samhain.

Over
the past three weeks, business had started picking up again, keeping the
Ghostbusters hopping across New York City.And the jobs had grown increasingly more dangerous as Halloween drew
nearer.Egon had voiced the opinion
that Samhain was probably behind the surge in paranormal activity, keeping his
foes too busy to locate him before he was ready to make his move.But now, as Halloween night approached, each
of the Ghostbusters knew that Samhain was going to try something.

They
just didn't know when or where.

“It's
hot in here,” Peter said abruptly, causing Ray and Egon to jump.“Turn down the heat, willya, Ray?”As an added measure, he rolled down the side
window to let what passed for fresh air into the car.At that moment, ECTO-1 was sitting in the middle of the
intersection of Broadway and Chambers.

A
breeze suddenly drifted into life.And
as it danced past the battered vehicle, each of the Ghostbusters could
distinctly hear a voice on the breeze, and the voice said one word:

“Deathhhhhhhhhh.....”

Peter
paled.“Don't tell me.”

Ray
shivered.“There's an old Celtic legend
that on the night of Samhain, if you sit in a crossroads, you can hear your
future spoken in the wind...”

Egon
said nothing.Peter suddenly rolled the
window back up.“Turn the heat back up,
Ray.”

An
almost palpable relief rushed through them as ECTO-1 rumbled through the
doorway of Ghostbusters Central.Ray
turned off the engine and hit the automatic door opener.“Someone want to wake Winston up?I'll grab the traps.”

Peter
shook Winston by the shoulder.“What?”
the black man cried, looking around wildly until he became fully awake and
realized where he was.“Oh man,” he
sighed, “I had the craziest dream...”

“Don't
sweat it,” Peter said.“Just
relax--we're home now.”They got out of
the car and headed for the receptionist's desk, where Janine was busy typing on
the computer.Wordlessly she held out
her hand, into which Peter put the day's receipts.“Thank you,” she said in reply.“By the way, guys, help yourself to the Halloween candy.I went out and got some more while you were
gone.Better hurry, though--Ray was
practically drooling when he went downstairs, so I don't know how long this
stuff's going to last.”

“Sounds
good.”Peter unwrapped a candy bar and
popped it into his mouth, as did Winston and Egon.“Oh man, this tastes great.”He flopped into a nearby chair and closed his eyes, savoring the
sweetness of the chocolate as it melted in his mouth.Nearby, Egon carefully set his meter beside him and leaned back
in one of the battered sofas before performing the same ritual.It felt so good to lean back and rest, even
if it could only be for a minute or two...

The
sudden screech of his PKE meter suddenly roused him; to his shock, Egon
realized that he'd dozed off. And to make matters worse, his body felt
impossibly heavy, as though his limbs were coated in lead.Movement was next to impossible.But he hadn't felt that tired, not
really...

With
a supreme effort, he forced his eyelids to rise and found that the other
Ghostbusters were in a similar state.Peter looked like a fish trapped on dry land, thrashing around feebly
with no success; Ray and Winston were struggling to lift their heads from the
floor with no better luck.

Then
Janine appeared right in front of him, a twisted leer on her features.“Having a problem, Dr. Spengler?” she asked,
and then she giggled, a high-pitched, eerie laugh that was utterly unlike
her...but awakened something in his memory, an incident when he'd heard that
cackle coming from what they'd thought was Janine...

“Copycat.”His mouth moved as though it was full of
molasses.And it suddenly occurred to
him that they'd been drugged--it was so obvious, he would have chided himself
for not seeing it earlier, except that it would have required too much
effort.Terror seized his heart as he
realized what was happening...and that he could do nothing about it.They were helpless--all of them.

The
phony Janine laughed again before stepping back; Egon sensed movement from just
beyond his line of vision and trembled as Samhain glided into view.The pumpkin-headed entity smiled menacingly
as he circled the Ghostbusters, making sure that each one of them was awake and
quite aware of what was...what would be...happening.

And
they watched, pale and helpless, as Samhain's hands began to glow, and his
voice echoed around the room:“Farewell, Ghostbusters...”

Janine
Melnitz really should have known better, she really should have; it was sheer
folly to buy Halloween treats early when you worked for four junk-food
addicts.The only thing that had
surprised her was that the original supply had lasted three days.Then again, they had been busy...

She
hummed to herself as she got into her car and left the market; well, four bags
of candy ought to take care of the legion of trick-or-treaters that came to
Ghostbusters Central every year (what kid could possibly resist visiting the
place on such an appropriate night?), and there'd be a little left over for the
guys to finish off.That ought to make
everyone happy.

She
was glad that Dana Barrett and Sheila Brown would be coming over to help
out--the sheer volume of kids could get overwhelming quickly.Besides, the guys were probably going to get
called out tonight, and most likely it was going to be Samhain stirring up
trouble.While she acknowledged the
danger involved in tackling that adversary, Janine was confident that her
employers could deal with the threat.After all, they'd stomped his butt twice already, hadn't they?By tomorrow morning, old Pumpkin-head would
be back in the containment and the guys could finally relax a bit.

As
her car approached the battered firehouse, something--she wasn't quite sure
what--set off a warning signal to her brain.She slowed down instinctively, carefully giving the place a once-over,
but everything seemed to be all right.But the feeling didn't go away--if anything, it was growing stronger...

Then
there was a sudden explosion of light and sound cascading from every window of
the firehouse, so bright and loud that Janine had to stop the car, close her
eyes tightly and cover her ears until it finally ended.And among the noises she could barely hear her
own voice as it screamed:

“EGON!”

TWO

Janine
switched off her car's ignition and ran to the main entrance of the firehouse,
leaving the bags of candy and her purse on the front seat.She threw the door open and rushed inside,
barely noticing the crisp odor of ozone that hung in the air.With unerring accuracy she hurriedly
navigated her way through the darkness past ECTO-1 until she reached the
reception area--where she froze in her tracks and felt the blood drain from her
face.

Winston,
Ray and Peter lay sprawled on the floor, their unmoving bodies twisted
awkwardly as if caught forever in one last spasm of agony.None of them had any sort of entry wound on
them, though, and there was no blood pooling on the floor.Their eyes were still open, staring
sightlessly at the ceiling, and the expression on their faces were terrible
visages of pain and fear.Janine stared
at each of them, dumbfounded with shock and horror, then her eyes drifted
unwillingly over to the couch, where one last Ghostbuster had fallen to the
unknown assassin.

“Egon...”Janine hurried over and knelt beside
him.Using her first aid training, she
pressed her fingers against his carotid artery and felt her throat tighten a
minute later when she withdrew them.Her fingers drifted across his pale features, caressing the cool skin
and finely-chiseled bones one final time.Unconsciously, she reached across his body and switched off the PKE
meter, which was bleating a pathetic staccato warning to no one, then tenderly
closed those beautiful blue eyes and shoved her sorrow to one side.There were things to be done, arrangements
to be made...

She
suddenly remembered the PKE meter and gasped.Ignoring Egon's body, she lunged for the meter and switched it back on,
gaping at the strong reading it was displaying.While she didn't know too much about the trade, Janine knew that
the only time a reading this strong came up was when an entity was close by.

Then
the containment alarm warbled.

Instinct
took over; Janine switched the meter off and set it next to Egon, then hurried over
to ECTO-1 and grabbed a proton pack from the back end, strapping it onto her
back with practiced ease.She rushed
over to the basement staircase and descended slowly, trying to keep her heels
from clacking on the wooden steps.And
when her prey finally came into view, Janine gasped again as she stared at the
back of the creature known as Samhain.

The
avatar of Halloween stood just in front of the containment, his jack-o' lantern
features smiling with savage glee and an insane cackling coming from his
mouth.His gnarled fingers were jammed
into the entry/exit unit, as if blocking the overwhelming tide of PKE that
should have been streaming out of the breached containment.And suddenly Janine realized that the entity
wasn't blocking the energy--he was absorbing it, every last erg
of it, into himself.

Everything
fell into place in Janine's whirling mind:he had ambushed the Ghostbusters, caught them at a vulnerable moment,
and killed them, probably making sure it was a long and painful death.And now he was increasing his power by
harnessing the energy that lay within his former prison.

Janine
blinked back a fresh round of tears and quietly reached back behind her for the
particle thrower.To her surprise,
however, she found her wrist grasped tightly by a warm hand.Whirling around, she was stunned to see
herself standing there, grinning maniacally.“Ah-ah-ah!” she heard her own voice say.“Mustn't hurt the master, naughty girl!Can't allow that, no we can't!”And then the imposter giggled shrilly, which triggered a long-forgotten
memory in Janine's mind.

She
struggled against her doppleganger. “Lemme go, you rotten bitch!He killed them--and you let him!”Changing tactics, she moved forward instead
of back, slamming into Copycat and knocking her off-balance.They tumbled down the stairs, kicking,
gouging and clawing at one another.Janine managed to get her right hand free and immediately reached back
for the particle thrower, only to be grabbed a second time...and this time, she
had a sinking feeling she knew by whom.Slowly, dreading confirmation, Janine turned around.

“Boo,”
said Samhain.

Janine
summoned every iota of courageous fury to get one shot at him, but she never
got the chance.Energy crackled from
Samhain, flowing from his eyes to hers.Before she could react, Janine stumbled as her will was completely
spellbound.The fire in her eyes
abruptly faded, as did every thought and impulse to resist.Her body slid into an obedient limpness.

“That's
much better,” Samhain smiled in satisfaction.“Remove the weapon,” he ordered as an afterthought; a second later, the
proton pack slid away from Janine's shoulders and hit the concrete floor with a
loud thud.

“Shall
we kill her, master?” Copycat asked, looking up at him hopefully.

He
cradled Janine's face in his hands with almost tender care.“Not just yet.She may be useful.”Nodding thoughtfully to himself, Samhain then asked her a single
question.

Her
reply brought a malicious smile to his hideous features.“Excellent,” he murmured.“Truly excellent.A stroke of luck and a taste of sweet irony.I like it.I like it very much indeed.”

He
turned to Copycat.“We are taking her
with us.Assume a suitable form and we
will return to our haven.Night
approaches, and with it, the coming of a new age!”Copycat cackled as its form twisted and shifted into a more
demonic appearance, human in outline but grey and hairy, with large bat wings
and long clawed fingers.It grasped the
unresisting Janine by her shoulders and, flapping its wings, ascended the
stairs, with Samhain gliding just behind.

He
paused at the reception area, allowing himself one last look at the bodies of
his vanquished foes.“A pity,” he told
them, “that you will never see what will transpire tonight, Ghostbusters.I would have enjoyed your struggle to
overcome it...and your ultimate failure.Good-bye...forever!”

As he
laughed in wicked triumph, Samhain raised one hand into the air; it glowed for
a moment, then exploded into a bright white flare of energy that burned through
every floor of the firehouse before exploding through the roof.The odd trio floated up through the new
passageway and paused at the top, where five low-level demons were waiting,
gibbering to themselves.

“Stay
here,” Samhain ordered.“If anyone
should enter and even so much as touch the Ghostbusters' equipment, destroy
them.”The demons drooled and screeched
among themselves, hoping for intruders; smiling, Samhain nodded to Copycat, and
with Janine firmly in tow, they soared into the darkening skies.

*
* * * * *

“God,
the traffic is terrible,” Dr. Sheila Brown commented as she glanced out the
taxi window.“I can't thank you enough
for dropping by Central Park and picking me up, Dana.”

“No
problem.As high as cab fares run these
days, the more the merrier as far as I'm concerned.”Dana Barrett smiled and glanced out her side window.“So, how was the festival?”

“Not
too bad,” Sheila shrugged.“Crowded as
all get out, but everyone was having a good time.”She patted the paper sack that was sitting on the floor of the
cab.“Picked up some nice stuff for the
apartment and for Ray.”

“Not
a sword, I hope,” Dana grinned.

Sheila
rolled her eyes.“Heavens no.”

Dana
looked out the grimy window again.“I
hope we get down to the firehouse before too long--Janine's going to need all
the help she can get when the legion of trick-or-treaters hit.”

“Guess
it's pretty irresistible to a kid, going by a place where you know there are
tons of ghosts and spooky things.”Sheila smiled to herself.“I
remember this old house in Boston, not too far from where I lived.I used to lead a bunch of kids there every
Halloween night--our parents thought we were on the streets.That place was so dilapidated, it's a wonder
we didn't fall through the floor or have the walls come down on us.The day the city finally tore it down, I
stood in front of the place and cried my eyes out.”She sighed at the memory.“There's something alternately frightening and alluring about the
supernatural.Maybe that's why I wound
up teaching parapsychology and the occult...and started dating Ray, you know?”

“Don't
ask me,” Dana smiled.“I had no say in
how I wound up with Peter.”She leaned
back against the hard seat and relaxed as the familiar “no ghosts” sign finally
came into view.“Well, here we are, and
it looks like the army hasn't hit the place yet.I hope Janine brought enough...”Suddenly, an odd sensation tickled at the back of her head, and the
hairs on her neck started to rise.An
eerie sense of danger and foreboding brushed against her mind, causing her to
lean forward again. “Something's wrong.”

“What?”
Sheila glanced over at her companion.“What do you mean?”

“Don't
ask me how I know, but something's wrong in there.”The instant the taxi stopped, Dana was out the door and racing to
the main entrance.Sheila blinked in
surprise, then fumbled through her purse to pay the driver his fare before
hurrying off to join her friend.

“So
what's going on?” Sheila asked.

Dana
pointed to the front door, which was slightly ajar.Cautiously, she opened the door enough to slip through, then
waited for Sheila to do the same.As
they shut the door behind them, an odd, crisp odor drifted past them, carried
by a chilly breeze.Guided by
determination and an infallible inner sense, Dana marched ahead; Sheila
absently reached over to the wall and flipped the main light switch on.To her dismay, the lights remained off, so
she stumbled onward, hands outstretched to ward off any unseen barriers.ECTO-1 sat in its accustomed spot, but when
she touched the hood as she walked past, she noted that the car had been out
recently.“Dana?” she called out, her
voice bouncing against the brickwork and ceiling.

“Over
here.”Dana's voice was tight, almost
breaking.Sheila walked over to
Janine's work area and gasped as she abruptly realized that daylight was
pouring down from above.Looking up,
she saw that someone or something had added a new skylight to the firehouse,
but hadn't yet added the glass and framework.“Wow,” she breathed.

On
the roof, the demon guard watched the two women moving about, but as they
hadn't yet touched any of the Ghostbusters' equipment, took no further action.

Now
Sheila looked down and cried out as she saw the Ghostbusters lying there.Instinctively, she recoiled back a step or
two before catching herself and forcing her legs to halt their retreat.Dana was crouched over Peter, her hands
folded in her lap and her eyes locked on his body; her head shook slightly back
and forth and a silent denial repeated itself over and over on her lips.Forcing back her own revulsion, Sheila went
to Ray's side and bent down beside him, then pressed her fingers against the
carotid artery in his neck.

Dana
slowly looked up from her reverie.“What are you doing?”

“Checking
for a pulse.”

Dana
tilted her head slightly.“I didn't
realize you knew anything about medicine.”

“My
sister's a specialist in forensic medicine.You'd be amazed what you can learn when a bunch of med students get
together at your house and start talking shop...”Sheila leapfrogged over to Winston and checked him as well.“Hmmm,” she sighed.“The evidence does suggest that they're
dead.”

Sheila
shook her head.“With anyone else, I'd
agree.But after everything Ray's told
me over the years, anything goes with this bunch.”She picked up Winston's hand and examined it carefully.“Odd.”She went back to where Ray lay and performed the same check.“Very odd.”

“How
can you be so calm and clinical about this?” Dana cried.“For God's sake, these are friends of
yours, and you're just poking them here and there like it's no big deal!”

Sheila
looked up, and Dana saw the anguish and pain behind her eyes.A vague sense of shame filled her, and she
shut up.“I don't like this any more
than you do,” Sheila said quietly.“But
someone is going to do it sooner or later, so that they can determine the cause
of death, and I've just noticed something that makes me want to know what
happened.Okay?”

“Okay.”Dana looked down, saw that Peter's eyes were
still open, and hurriedly looked away.“So what have you found?”

“It's
what I haven't found.I can't
figure out what killed them--there aren't any wounds, blood, marks, or
burns--nothing.It's like they all just
keeled over at the same time.”She
shook her head.“They'll probably
perform autopsies to determine the cause, but frankly, I doubt they'll find
anything.Weird.”

“While
we're on that subject,” Dana sighed, “shouldn't we call the police?”

“Good
idea.”Sheila waited until Dana had
gotten to her feet and headed for the phone before she went over to examine
Peter.“This is really bizarre, for
sure.”

“Hey,
there's a meter on Janine's desk.”Dana
picked it up and studied it for a moment before setting it down again.Lifting the phone receiver, she listened
intently, then frowned.“The phone's
dead.”Reaching behind the unit, she
grabbed the cord and gave it a hard tug--to her shock, the other end of the
cord came flying to her.“Sheila--the
phone line's been cut!”

“I
don't like this,” Sheila shook her head.“I don't like this at all.”She
glanced up abruptly.“Where's Janine?”

Dana
looked around blankly.“I...I don't
know...”

“Wasn't
her car outside?”Sheila rose to her
feet and hurried out the front door, leaving Dana with four dead bodies in a
firehouse without power or communications.But Sheila returned a few minutes later with several items in her
hands:two bags of candy, one purse,
and a heavily-laden key chain.“I
thought I remembered seeing her car,” she said as she dumped the stuff on
Janine's desk.

“So
where is she?” Dana asked uneasily.

“And
who did all this?” Sheila echoed, waving a hand around and up.She glanced worriedly first at the staircase
leading upstairs, then at the basement stairwell.“Maybe we should take a look around.”

“Together
or separately?” Dana asked.

“We'd
cover more ground separately,” Sheila pointed out.

“I
was afraid you'd say that.”

Sheila
reached under the desk and retrieved a large baseball bat.“Janine told me about this once--it's a
rough neighborhood, and with the guys gone so often...” She looked at Dana, who
was heading for ECTO-1.“Where are you
going?”

“You
choose your weapons, I choose mine.”She opened the back door.

Watching
from above, the demon guard drooled with anticipation.

A
minute later, she winced as the full weight of a proton pack pressed against
her back.“God, these things are as
unbearable as Peter always claimed. “She grabbed the particle thrower and brought it forward.“You check out the upper floors--I don't
want to even consider going up two flights of stairs with one of these on.I'll check this level and the basement.”

Two
demons slipped away from their partners and descended quietly into the third
floor, melting into the shadows as they moved.

“All
right.”Sheila cautiously crept up the
staircase, bat tightly gripped and held just in front of her.Dana waited until she knew her partner had
made it to the second floor, then quietly moved over to Peter's office and
peered around.Finding nothing, she
took a deep breath and headed for the stairwell leading to the basement.

She
found a discarded proton pack at the foot of the stairs; noticing it was activated,
she switched it off and suddenly realized that she'd never turned her own pack
on.Smiling foolishly, she quickly did
so, then continued her search...and suddenly, the sense of foreboding returned
with a vengeance.

It
was dark and quiet down here...too quiet.After a second of reflection, she realized that the silence was the
problem--the containment wasn't making any noise.Her heart skipped a beat when she saw that the unit was in “open”
position--a condition she quickly corrected--then went over to the main control
panel and studied it.

Egon
had once given her a long-winded explanation of how it worked while she waited
for Peter to finish his shower, but it had been Ray who'd given her the
“five-cent tour”.Dana looked around
for the pair of red and green buttons that were set apart from the other dials
and switches; the red button was higher than the green.She pressed it back down, which raised the
green one up and activated the control panel.That confused Dana for a moment, until she remembered Ray telling her
that the containment was operated from a separate power system than the
firehouse.Smiling with satisfaction,
she now looked for the digital readout that displayed how much PKE was
currently in the containment...and gasped when the readout stayed at “0000”.

Not
good.... not good at all.

Suddenly
she heard a scream from upstairs.Instantly forgetting the burden on her back, Dana raced for the stairs
and took them two at a time.She
reached the main floor just as a second cry for help came from the third
floor--she ran for the main stairwell and took those steps in a rush as well.

A
herd of demonic creatures were circling Sheila, slowly edging her towards the
hole in the floor.They turned and
hissed at Dana as she reached the top of the stairs; their mouths oozed spittle
and their eyes burned with hatred.She
leveled the particle thrower at them and narrowed her eyes.“Get away from her, you bastards.”

The
closest one lunged towards her; Dana remembered Peter's lessons and braced
herself before firing.A stream of
sparkling energy leaped out of the barrel and slammed into the demon, driving
him backwards into two of his compatriots.Seeing that one of the remaining two was distracted by the sudden
disturbance, Sheila swung her bat and connected squarely with the creature's
head.

Dana
was no fool; she knew the odds were against them in a prolonged battle, so
instead of firing again she reached back and grabbed a trap.Holding it in front of her body, she smacked
the activator pedal with her foot and bathed the demonic group in its unearthly
glow.They screamed insanely as the
aura tore at them, dragging them closer and closer to the trap.Two heartbeats later, the demons were gone
and the trap was closed.

Dana
opened her eyes and forced herself to start breathing again.Sheila emerged from behind Ray's bed and
looked around warily.“You okay?” she
called.

“Yes.”Dana carefully set the trap on the floor and
wiped the sweat from her forehead.“My
God...”

“You
looked pretty good there.”Sheila
tapped the trap with her foot.“You
think they had something to do with what happened downstairs?”

“Safe
bet.And possibly they're connected
with Janine's disappearance.”Dana
looked over at her friend.“What do we
do now?”

“Well...”Sheila sat down the stairs; Dana joined her
a moment later.“We ought to find a
phone and call the police about the guys.”

“No,”
Dana shook her head.“What if more of
those...things...show up?Someone could
be hurt.That can wait for the moment.”

“Well,
let me grab something, then, and we can head downstairs.”Sheila rose to her feet and rummaged through
a nearby closet, emerging a few minutes later with a stack of linen.“I don't believe it--a bachelor pad with
clean sheets.Will wonders ever
cease?”Dana followed her downstairs
and watched as Sheila carefully covered each of the fallen Ghostbusters.“That's better,” she said after covering
Egon.“They were giving me the creeps,
staring at us like that.”

“Now,
back to the original question,” said Dana.“What do we do now?”

“I
don't know.”Sheila had found the PKE
meter on Janine's desk; biting her lip, she switched it on and jumped backwards
at the horrendous screech it made.“Don't know why I'm surprised,” she said, grinning foolishly at
Dana.“Peter always did call this place
'Spook Central'.”

Dana
looked around the room slowly, a plan formulating in her mind.Then she stared at the gap in the
ceiling.“We've got to stop whoever did
this to Peter and the others, that's what we have to do.”

Sheila
looked over at her.“Say what?”

“Whoever
did this has Janine--she's in big trouble.We've got to save her--no one else has the remotest chance of doing
it.It's up to us.”

“So
what are you saying we do?Climb into
ECTO-1 and play 'Ghostbusters'?”Then
she studied Dana's face.“My God,
that's exactly what you're talking about doing, isn't it?”

“We're
the only ones who have even a chance.”

“Dana,
you're not thinking clearly, and God knows I understand why, but you're
building a case on circumstantial evidence!You don't even know if Janine's still alive...”

Dana
shook her head.“We've got to try,
Sheila.We've got to stop whatever
killed the guys.Because if it was able
to this to them,” she waved at the four shrouded bodies, “then the rest of the
world is in terrible danger.And we're
the only ones who can do a thing about it.”

“You
are nuts.”Sheila walked over to the
lockers and peered into Ray's.She
touched the heavy fabric of his uniform, caressing it with her fingers.“I've never even handled one of those
packs,” she said softly.

“It's
pretty easy.I can teach you while
we're on our way.You'll catch on fast,
believe me.”

“We
don't even know where to go!”

Dana
held up the meter.“This will tell us
where.”

“We aren't
even dressed for this!” Sheila threw up her arms in surrender.

“Well,
we can do something about that...”

Sheila
looked at herself in the mirror.“I
look ridiculous.The fit isn't even
close.”She picked at the baggy
uniform.“And this was the smallest
size I could find in Ray's locker.”

“Don't
feel bad.”Dana looked down at Egon's
spare coveralls.“This one's tight in
all the wrong places.But they'll have
to do.”She went over to ECTO and
examined the back area.“Good, there
are still some empty traps, and two packs in addition to this one.”She hefted the one she'd been using into the
car.“We're in good shape, overall.”

Dana
moved over to where her friend stood and put a comforting arm around her.“I understand, Sheila, really I do.But we're going to have to put this aside
for awhile, until the situation's been taken care of.Okay?”

Sheila
nodded.“It just hits at the strangest
times, you know?”She offered the keys
to Dana, who simply stared stupidly at them.“What's wrong?”

“I
thought you were going to drive.”

“Me?”
Sheila squeaked.“I never learned!I don't even have a license!”

“Oboy.”Dana stared at the dangling keys, then at
ECTO-1, then back at Sheila.“Well,
it's been a long time, but if we turn all the sirens and lights on and take it
easy, I might be able to make a passible job out of it.”She handed Sheila the PKE meter.“This switch turns it on.You'll have to wave it around periodically
and tell me which direction has the strongest reading.”

“How
can I tell?” Sheila demanded as she headed for the front passenger side.“It's already making a racket!”

Dana
opened the driver's side door and climbed in.“Trust me, you'll know.”When
Sheila slammed her door shut, the two women looked at each other for a moment,
then Dana slipped the key into the ignition and hit the garage door
opener.“Let's roll.”

“Rode
the six hundred,” Sheila sighed softly as ECTO-1 lurched into the street.